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I have been a regular on the debt free diaries board for years as well as dipping in here at times. I did join in Tallgirls Mortgage Free in 3 Challenge several years ago and have had several diaries over the years. This is the first time I've had one here though despite never actually being in debt I always felt it could happen oh so easily so treated myself as if I was a dfw.

So, 2017 and my new diary here ...

I have lived in my lovely flat with my ds (13) for the last 9 years and finally it looks as though we will be moving in the new year. I have sold my flat to a cash buyer and have had an offer accepted on a 2 bed little house. I will probably put stuff into storage and stay with my Mum for a few weeks while the house goes through as my buyers are very keen to complete asap and I don't want to risk losing them as I have already had one sale fall through due to brexit.

Normally at this point between Christmas and New Year I begin planning my aims for the coming year, setting goals - usually financial related, and generally getting everything organised ready to tackle whatever I have planned. This normally is a £££ goal to knock off the mortgage etc.

This year however everything is a bit unknown as I can't predict how much I can save etc at this point. But what I can do is take stock of exactly where I'm at now and make lists, I do like lists , of things I need to do to make as many pennies as possible / minimise spends where possible.

And so we make it to another payday and the end of another month. Tonight I will move £350 from my wages into my brothers fund which sees me hit 2017's target for that, so I have 31 days now to focus on my holiday fund.

Realistically this is going to be a very tough month so I'm super pleased that the savings target is out of the way. I do have enough *on paper* for this Xmas budget, but things have a habit of running out of control in December, so I will just need to keep a very close eye on things.

I have spent £41 on food today and £10 on my school food/drink account, this weekend we are going to watch banger racing, I promised ds ages ago and his friend has agreed to come to. It's £20 each , ds and his friend are paying £10 each towards their tickets, so it will cost me £40 but it's very rare that ds goes anywhere with a friend so I don't mind treating him.

Hello all, day one of December almost done, a busy one at work today. I have earned my Swagbucks bonus for November (330 sb's), I have enough to cash out a £5 voucher but will wait until next week as there is a new round of Swago starting on Monday and sometimes claiming a voucher appears on the board for that.

£3 Halifax reward in this morning, added to the holiday pot. I have done a load of surveys this morning and am considering getting out of bed some time soon

Today will mainly be spent pottering indoors and getting everywhere clean and tidy ready to begin thinking about Christmas stuff. I might get the decs out later so I can begin thinking about what will be going where this year. Tonight we're going to watch banger racing, ds has a friend coming with us and is very excited

December is the month where I get two lots of tax credits (paid every 4 weeks), so the second payment is going in the holiday fund. Currently I have £615 so with that £307 I will have £922, so I am aiming to get to £1000 in there by the end of the year, so that's £78 to find this month

"A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of" Jane Austen in Mansfield Park.***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb.It starts with you, it starts from now. *** It is ok to be me.*** ***Keep plodding***

I ended up dropping ds and his friend near the banger racing and will pick them up later, he prefers that rather than having Mum tagging along and it saves £20 for my entrance ticket and means I can watch Strictly in peace

I did pop into Tesco on the way back and got a few bits and pieces, I spent £30 although £1 of this I can claim back and £4 will come from the gift fund, so actually £25 spent from the budget. I did get a coupe of pieces of fillet steak reduced from £9 down to £2.50 each, so that will make a nice dinner one night this week I also picked up a joint of pork for £2.50. I should hopefully be able to just do a small top-up shop for this week rather than need to do a proper shop now.

Morning all, I'm having a lazy lie-in with the laptop today, ds is having his fortnightly lie-in so I don't want to disturb him by wandering about.

Today is going to be an indoor kinda day, I have a few bits and pieces I need to get done:

One more load of washing

Ironing

Get Xmas stuff out of the list and see what I need to get this year

Make apple / plum crumble

Roast dinner

Some school work

Meter readings

Ds -homework

Ds - finish xmas cards

Order anything I need from Amazon before prime trial runs out next week

Relist items on ebay

Swagbucks daily target

Eyebrows etc

I've found a new diary on the dfw board I'm enjoying so want to read some more of that, I haven't been over there for ages but its very inspiring when you read some of them and might give me some motivation / tips.

I forgot to add in my list that Bournemouth are live on Sky today, so that is my main priority today It's a home game against local rivals Southampton.

Since my last post I noticed on the right hand side a bos that said about a TSB bank switch offer that ends on Monday. I didn't think I'd be able to apply as I recently switched another account to Clydesdale, but I had a go and I was accepted, so that's more money coming my way in the new year You get £130 straight away and then £5 per month as long as there are 2 active dd's (there are two in the account I've switched) and another £5 per month as long as you make 20 debit card transactions in the month. The 2 x £5 bits are until July, so after that I can look at switching the account again if I want to although it also offers 3% interest on balances up to £1500, so I may keep some of my brothers money in there and gain some interest from it. The swaitch has all been filled in (took less than 5 minutes to do) and then I just need to transfer in £500 per month which is fine as the old account needed £750 a month transferred in (then straight out again). The account I've switched is my Halifax one, which did pay me £3 per month, but over a year that works out at £36, whereas this one makes more financial sense for now, and hopefully there will be other offers to take advantage of once the offers stopped.

I need to write down in a book exactly what needs doing when for this one and the Clydesdale one as between them it's a very easy £450 I will make but I need to make sure I don't miss anything

"A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of" Jane Austen in Mansfield Park.***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb.It starts with you, it starts from now. *** It is ok to be me.*** ***Keep plodding***

"A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of" Jane Austen in Mansfield Park.***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb.It starts with you, it starts from now. *** It is ok to be me.*** ***Keep plodding***

I sent a package off to m@gik m@gpi£ this weekend and it still hasn't arrived there. Have sent quite a few and they don't usually take this long to arrive as the company send me texts on receipt. Presume it's cos of the Xmas rush. Have the postage receipt so fingers crossed it arrives soon.x

Made it through another week, I feel achey and generally yucky tonight, my throat is sore and we have lots of people off at school with various bugs / infections, so hoping an early night and a lazy weekend might keep it at bay

Ds is at his Dads this weekend, I have lots of xmassy bits to sort this weekend but overall the aim is to chill and get through the last 5 days of school

Morning, cashin in a £5 amazon voucher from a survey site, I had a rubbish nights sleep and my sore throat seems to have morphed into a cold overnight. I am trying to clear some surveys from my inbox at the minute, then will need to take ds to the station in an hour or so.

After that it will be the usual weekend round up of housework, maybe a bit of shopping and then an afternoon on the sofa with SkySports

We have 5 more days at school then I will do the xmas decorations once we break up. Can't wait for friday!!

So I dropped ds at the station, went to the local town and spent £6 in Morrisons and £30 on a Christmas tree, it has a base attached and is being delivered this afternoon so that's that job sorted. I also dropped off a bag of old clothes to the cash4clothes shop, got £2 back, not a lot but better than taking them to landfill. Also managed to find a few job adverts so have earned a few more pennies from jobspotter too.

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